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Time to dust off your dancing shoes and bring back your tartan! It's that time of year again - Burns Night is THIS weekend on the 25th of January!

Meet Anne-Marie .........

Meet Sophie Lytollis....

Gretna Green has joined another global romantic tradition! A tradition with unknown origins, reflecting the desire of couples to remain together forever...Lovelocks!

We recently found padlocks on the bridge in the Courtship Maze here at the Gretna Green Famous Blacksmith Shop! Awww!

Anyone else feeling like trading in their car for a boat might be in order soon? The return of the seemingly endless bouts of rain which have decided to pay Dumfries and Galloway a visit lately aren't the only reasons to look at our sky at the moment!

These days, walk around the centre of practically any city and you could be forgiven for thinking that you had suddenly been transported to Scotland! In fact, walking the city centre of Glasgow in the middle of last week, there was a bright, colourful, homely piece worn as the latest fashion by almost everyone! Any ideas what we're on about?

Yep, you've probably guessed it! We're talking about the appearance of the latest fashion must-have: TARTAN!

It may be hard to believe that the end of October is nearly here again..........but with autumn fully upon us, here at Gretna Green, we thought we needed something colourful to counter the constant grey that seems to be outside our windows.

While most of us may not view Halloween as the perfect time for a wedding, for anyone not enticed by traditional themes, this time of year is perfect for throwing a celebration that is just as unique! Although we may not have any stories of our own Halloween-themed weddings to share with you, we thought we'd share a few of our favourites with you.....who knows, those visitors to the New Shop may just ghost over to the Blacksmiths anvil before too long!

Don't fret - even if you're like some of us and not the biggest fan of costumes or over-the-top decorations which seems to accompany Halloween nowadays, it's easy to weave holiday themes without the need for fancy dress.....

As far as we are aware, tweets don't often lead to festivals.....but that's exactly the case here at Gretna Green!

As some of you might remember, earlier this year we came across a tweet by an American author, Valerie Bowman, whose novel Secrets of Runaway Bride featured our very own Famous Blacksmiths Shop sparking the idea of holding a romantic festival here at Gretna Green.

Do you tweet? We do, in fact we love it! A funny thing happened a few months back while we were happily responding to some mentions on Twitter... we came across a tweet from an American author named Valerie Bowman - Valerie was talking about her new book 'Secrets of a Runaway Bride' featuring our very own Gretna Green Famous Blacksmiths Shop! We were impressed! We do like a mention in a book now and then... (see Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice for example). So we were rather excited to hear that we featured in Ms Bowman's new book and knew that we had to talk to her to find out more...

Over the years we have welcomed people from all around the world to Gretna Green Famous Blacksmiths Shop, including a few famous faces (which always causes great excitement here).

Following the release of David Bowie's return to form with his critically-acclaimed new album, 'The Next Day' we've now learned that David Bowie visited Gretna Green in the 1990s!

It's June and it's warm and sunny - long may it continue! Today, however that's not the best news we have for everyone... We have some truly exciting news to share and we know that it's been a while since we last wrote a blog post but trust us, it is worth the wait!

We've just been accepted into the 'Scottish Visitor Attraction' Hall of Fame!!

Weddings... They do take a little bit of planning don't they? (which is why we have our own team of wedding planners to help our Gretna Green couples). However, imagine adding "Training for a 980-mile cycle from Land's End to John O'Groats" to the to-do list...We certainly can't but yesterday we met a wonderful couple who did just that!

If you were with us this weekend, you may have been lucky enough to see lots of vintage cars around the Gretna Green Famous Blacksmiths Shop and Smiths Hotel. While we're used to seeing vintage cars used by our Brides and Grooms as part of our Gretna Green Wedding Packages, it was particularly interesting to see all the different makes and models on site. All in all, we were really excited to be chosen (again) as one of the main checkpoints for this year's Flying Scotsman Vintage Car Rally!

Love is in the air quite literally this week as a pair of young wild swans wearing 'marriage' rings from the wedding capital of the UK, Gretna Green's Famous Blacksmiths Shop are 'eloping' to an Icelandic love nest in the name of science.

The two 'darvic' rings, attached to the legs of the Whooper Swans, were blessed in a symbolic 'over-the-anvil' Gretna Green blessing ceremony by us inside the Famous Blacksmiths Shop on Valentine's Day. UK bird experts hope the two white Whoopers - which mate for life and live for up to 26 years (how romantic!) will help them uncover new information about the species' migration behaviour between the Caerlaverock Wetlands in Scotland and Iceland.

We may still be feeling the winter chills but things were definitely heating up here in Gretna Green as we celebrated another lovely Valentine's Day! Love and romance is always in the air here at Gretna Green; we've always tried to add our own special touch to Valentines Day and this year was no different. We were also lucky to get some good rays of sunshine, quite a rarity lately so it was perfect weather for the occasion!

For our lovely couples who chose this romantic date to get married with us in the Gretna Green Famous Blacksmiths Shop, our very own Frank and the team from the Famous Blacksmiths Shop presented each bride with a single red rose after the ceremony...

This week is UK Marriage Week (7th - 14th Feb) and it's time for couples to celebrate their marriage and that special someone in their life.

Weddings and therefore 'Happy Marriages' are central to our history here in Gretna Green, and being the "Wedding Capital of the UK"we're so lucky to see our lovely couples as they make their wedding vows to one another and start their married lives together!

This week is Rabbie Burns Week and for many it's a time to think back and remember a great literary figure in Scotland while at the same time enjoying some delicious Haggis, Neeps and Tatties! Here in Gretna Green however, we've been spending some time at our local primary school where they've been learning more about Robert Burns' famous poems...

A successful 2012 brings new hope and exciting times to Gretna Green for 2013.

Happy New Year to all of you, we hope everyone has had a brilliant Christmas and New Year.

We had such a great time here at Gretna Green and our New Years Gala Dinner in our 4* Smiths Hotel was one of the best yet!

Here in Gretna Green, Scotland's 'Wedding Capital' we like to make sure every day is special for our wedding couples. However, today in particular has stood out as a really special date...!

12th December 2012 (or 12.12.12) is a rare palindrome date and the last date this century where the day, month and the year all match! In fact... it seemed like a perfect date for our lovely couples to pick to mark 'their special day' and for almost 2 years now our Wedding Team here at Gretna Green and Smiths Hotel have been receiving enquiries about this date.

Last week we had a very special visit by the daughter of a couple who were married right here in our Famous Blacksmiths Shop 76 years ago... And she had a present for us! Here's the background story of this unique visit...